


My Imaginary Friend

by icescreamstand



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-08-28
Packaged: 2019-07-03 14:14:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15820542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icescreamstand/pseuds/icescreamstand
Summary: Rey has just been adopted into the Organa-Solo family and she couldn't be more excited, especially with the boy that lives in her closet.





	My Imaginary Friend

_ “C’mon kid, I believe in you.” _

 

_ “C’mon sweetheart, wake up… Please.” _

  
  


1998

 

The day was warm, the sky was clear and the sun was definitely showing off as a little girl with three buns sat in the backseat of an old volkswagen. She was tracing the lines of the wooden panelling absently, noticing the initials  _ B.S.  _ written in sharpie right by the window switches. She glanced up to see her newly adopted parents holding hands on top of the dope box. Her new mother, Leia, smiling contently, humming along to whatever random song was playing. She couldn’t see her new father, Han, driving the car along the farm road. She could hear him tapping away on the steering wheel, matching the melody of the song with perfect rhythm. 

 

She stared back out the window and watched as hills and the cows dotting the pastures in different shades of browns, blacks, and whites rolled past her in a blur. Today was Rey’s birthday, she was finally 6 years old and was now the loving daughter of two loving parents. She now had a last name and as she sat in this car she had never felt more complete in her whole life. Leia had already promised her a nice surprise when they got home.  _ Home. _ Even the word ‘home’ brought a new feeling of excitement to Rey. 

 

The car was slowing and she heard the intrusive noise of blinker noise blaring, demanding for attention. She noticed Han turned right onto a dirt road. She sat up straighter as she felt every bump, dip, and rock pass underneath the tires of the old station wagon. 

 

“We’re almost home.” Leia turned to face Rey. The older woman held a grin to her face and Rey was soon matching hers as she became as to what her future home looked like. She didn’t expect much, most adopted parents made average income and lived in either a nice one story home or average two story home, but as they turned into a driveway, Rey unbuckled her seat belt and launched herself so she was laying on the dope box, trying to get a better view of her new home. 

 

The house was a two story white farmhouse that was huge to say the least. But as they pulled into the carport Rey noticed the extensive gardening and knick-knacks adorning the lawn in a strategic manner that gave it such a welcoming feeling as Han parked the car. 

 

Her parents got out of the car and Han opened the door and Rey hopped out in a hurry to get a better look of the house, her small Barney backpack hanging loosely from one arm as she marvelled at the sight before her. The house had a wrap around porch with rocking chairs and a dog bowl. 

 

“You guys have a dog?” Rey asked staring at the bowl. 

 

“We have three dogs actually. Threepio, Artie, and Bee.” Han spoke placing a hand on Rey’s small shoulder. 

 

“Can I see them?” she asked, her voice was eerily calm as she tried to contain her excitement. Han chuckled seeing her strained expression. 

 

“Of course you can, they’re your dogs too yah know.” He led her to the back of the house where there was more yard and she saw a jungle gym set up and a treehouse. 

 

Han noticed her eyeing the treehouse, “Rey, until I get the treehouse fixed up, can you stay out of there? Some of the boards are rotten and I don’t want you up there until they get fixed, alright?” Rey glanced up at Han and nodded. Han’s stern face lightened up and gave her a soft smile. 

 

They stopped at a gated in part of the yard and she froze when she saw a Golden Retriever, a King Charles Spaniel, and an Alaskan Malamute. 

 

“Rey, this is Threepio-” he motioned to the spaniel, “-this is Artie-” he pointed at the malamute, “-and this is Bee.” the retriever barked at the girl in excitement. She automatically took a liking to Bee. 

 

“I love them!” she exclaimed jumping up and down in excitement.

  
  


She was the first to race inside the backdoor of her house. They were in the kitchen, she noticed the light green cabinets, the yellow tiles lining the walls in between the cabinets and counters. There was pictures of family and inspirational quotes adorning the walls as well as weird items placed throughout. She saw a skull laying on a counter sharing space with a basket full of miscellaneous items. 

 

Leia tentatively grabbed her daughter’s hand and led her through the kitchen, through the open living room, and slowly began the ascent up the stairs to the second floor. Rey stumbled slightly as she couldn’t help but stare at every single part of her home. She paused at the top of the stairs and looked down the narrow hallway, seeing the many doors lining the hallway, she was curious as to which room held what.

 

“C’mon.” Leia smiled, leading Rey to the last door on the left.  _ My new room _ . Rey closed her eyes, taking a deep breath she opened the door and tears took hold of her. The room was bigger than what she ever thought possible. It was painted a light yellow with a daybed pushed to the side of the room next to a window. The comforter had flower designs of different shades of blues, purples, and pink and the pillows were all navy blue. She saw so many toys set to the side of the room and she gasped when she saw a TV sitting on her dresser. 

 

“I’ve never had a TV before!” she exclaimed, bouncing from foot-to-foot. 

 

Leia chuckled, sitting on the bed, watching Rey completely lose it as she examined every little thing she could. 

 

“Yep, so you can watch as many movies as you want! We have anywhere from Cinderella to Power Rangers to Barney.” Rey turned at the sound of Barney. It was her favorite shows, that and the newer show, Blue’s Clues.

 

Rey dropped her backpack to the ground and raced over to Leia to embrace her. Tears streamed down the little girl’s face as everything from the past 24 hours hit her like a wave. 

 

“This is the best birthday ever. Thank you, thank you so much.” Rey sobbed out as Leia stroked Rey’s hair gently. 

 

\---

 

Rey was tucked into bed after a day of eating vanilla cupcakes with strawberry icing (her favorite!) and watching as many movies she could entertain in the span of 6 hours. Her parents were just complying to whatever she wished that day, they had cupcakes for lunch and dinner, and she controlled what they watched.

 

Leia tucked her in snuggly into the floral sheets and smiled down at Rey, her mother’s features silhouetted by shades of orange and black.

 

“Now, tomorrow, we’re gonna go to school and get you all signed up and registered. You’re going to be going to Coruscant Elementary now. I hope you’ll love it there.” Leia whispered. 

 

Rey’s eyes lit up at the news, “I’m not going to Jakku anymore?” A smile lit up as she thought about never seeing Principle Plutt and his stupid smelly face ever again. Leia nodded simply, studying Rey’s face. 

 

Rey squealed in excitement and threw her hands around Leia’s neck, one more gift for her birthday. 

 

“Goodnight Rey.” Leia murmured standing up, but not before planting a simple kiss on the girl’s forehead. Rey watched as Leia left her room, closing the door, only leaving a simple crack letting a small stream of light filter into the room. 

 

Rey laid there, she wondered what everyone at her old foster home was doing right now… Chores? Fighting? Sleeping? She moved her covers out of the way and reached for her backpack that was leaning against the bedpost. She set it out in front of her and emptied its content in one simple dump. 

 

Setting the bag back on the ground, Rey looked at all the things she had come to own over the years. Two pictures, a book of fairytales, a necklace, and an old Stormtrooper ragdoll she had bought at a garage sale for 50 cents. 

 

Grabbing the photos she looked at the photos of her when she was a baby, her real mother’s arms wrapped tightly around her. The next photo was a photo of her with her father, yet she still couldn’t see his face, it was blurred and partly hidden. But she always liked to imagine that he was a hero somewhere, or an astronaut travelling the stars, and her parents sent her away because they were just so busy saving the world. 

 

She stuffed the images in her pillow and placed the oversized necklace around her neck, a small broken crystal lying in the dip of her collarbones. The crystal was a deep red color, it had come with her to the foster home and she swore she would never give it away, it was important, she didn’t know how, but it was important. 

 

She grabbed the Stormtrooper ragdoll and traced the designs sewed onto the helmet absently. 

 

“Hello?” she sat up at the sound of a voice. She looked around wildly, trying to figure out where the deep, melodic voice came from. It almost sounded like her new father’s voice. 

 

“Hello?” she called out nervously. Her closet door opened slowly and she felt her heartbeat speed up at the thought of a monster hiding in her closet. But she was brave, she could defeat the monster. 

 

Instead of a monster, there was a little boy standing there, he was a little older than her and in the dim lighting she saw that he was pale and his hair was black. 

 

“Hello.” she said again, but this time her voice was more firm and welcoming. “Who are you?” The little boy looked around, his eyes seemed sad before resting on Rey. 

 

“You can see me?” he asked dumbfounded, his voice a lot higher than what she heard at first. But she quickly dismissed that thought and focused on the strange boy standing in the middle of her room.

 

She let out a light chuckle, “Of course I can see you dummy. Who are you?” she asked again, her voice lighter this time. The boy slowly walked over to her bed and his hand lightly traced the the bedspread, his eyes found their way back to hers as if asking if he could sit with her. She gave a simple nod and he climbed onto the bed and sat opposite of her. His legs were folded and there seemed to be an almost dignified air to him. 

 

“My name is Kylo.” he greeted, a small smile forming on his lips as he looked down. There was something broken about the boy, and also something so familiar about him, but she couldn’t place this feeling of deja vu. 

 

Rey raised a brow at the sound of his name, “Kylo? That’s a funny name.” As she spoke she saw the hurt in his eyes. “But I like it!” she quickly finished, she didn’t want to lose her first friend already. “It’s a good name. Well,  _ Kylo _ , my name is Rey.”

 

“What are you doing here?” he muttered looking around the room, noticing all the stuff scattered about, some stuff he recognized, but that was from a different time; he ignored the pain growing inside his chest and instead focused his attention back on the little girl with constellations in her dark eyes.

 

“I live here.” Her voice was full of pride at the thought that she now had a home and a family, and that no one was going to take her away from any of it.

 

Ben tilted his head, studying her. “I’ve never seen you here before. Are you new, or have I just been away for too long?” 

 

“Do you live here?” she asked quickly, ignoring his weird questions. “Han and Leia have never spoke about you?” Kylo’s face fell as she swore she saw tears stream down his face, but when he looked back up at her, the tears were gone. 

 

“I’ve lived here for a long time, I’m more of an imaginary friend than anything, that’s why they’ve never talked about me.” he explained, a false smile spreading across his lips. His brows furrowed as he thought for a moment, and suddenly his false smile turned into a real smile.

 

“Only kids who believe in magic can see me.” 

 

Rey’s eyes went wide. “Your magic?” Kylo nodded. He leaned back against the railing of her bed and crossed his arms over his chest. 

 

“As long as you believe in magic, I’ll always be here Rey. I’ll always be a friend.” Rey nodded in understanding. She watched as Kylo hopped out of bed and slowly made his way back to her closet. “You should probably try to sleep Rey, from what I’ve heard you have a long day ahead of you.” he gave her a soft smile before entering her closet. Rey watched as the closet door closed and suddenly she felt a wave of exhaustion pass through her as she pulled her covers close but her Stormtrooper closer. 

 

“Goodnight Kylo…”


End file.
